


Mutual Grooming

by Kariachi



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Gen, Non-Sexual Intimacy, PICK YOUR POISON, can be read as shippy or platonic, two guys hanging out naked because they're friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23552056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kariachi/pseuds/Kariachi
Summary: Life is stressful and busy and so Kevin and Argit engage in some traditional space-rat social bonding behavior.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Mutual Grooming

“Don’t know what you’d do without me.”

“Oh wither, definitely. Two weeks and I’d turn to dust.” Kevin hissed as the brush hit a particularly nasty tangle, feeling like it was going to take out the whole section of scalp. “Fuck, man, try to leave some on my head!”

“It’s not my fault the stuff knots up. If you’d just-”

“-have fur like any proper species instead, yes, Hedgehog, I know.” Scoffing, Argit yanked at the knot again with the brush, then set it aside with a chitter and started working it apart with his fingers.

“Don’t know why I keep such a mouthy thing,” he said, smile clear in his voice. Unable to turn his head, Kevin grinned at the rather blurry sink in response. He needed to start putting his contacts back in sooner, his farsightedness was getting ridiculous.

“Because your fur gets weird when you try to blow-dry your back on your own.”

“Ah, yeah, that’d do it.”

Fuck but he had needed this, a chance to just _relax_. Between work and helping the Tennysons and keeping his car in top shape he hardly had time to _sleep_ , nonetheless to properly chill, but Argit had refused to take no for an answer today. Coming home battered and scraped up from one of his own jobs gone wrong, it hadn’t been long into Kevin patching him up (swearing to break faces all the while, because even though he rarely got the chance to follow through the promise alone never failed to charm the alien) before he’d insisted they both needed a long soak and a good cleaning. Damn, it had been so long, and so much had been going on, that Kevin had almost forgotten how nice it was to just, soak and chat and make sure neither of them were hosting colonies of fleas or moss. To just sit on a towel on the bathroom floor and let Argit brush out his hair. Take a blow-dryer to his favorite furball, since towels got caught in his quills and even as thin as it was his fur took ages to dry on its own.

(Someday, someday he was going to get a proper diet into his rat and he’d get plump and his fur would get thick and glossy, and there were days Kevin wanted to see that more than he wanted to keep himself alive.)

(Not that Argit was ever going to hear about _that_. He worried enough.)

It’d taken what seemed like forever for them to reach this point- it’d been a long while before Kevin was comfortable with them being naked in each other’s presence _period_ (something that had never given Argit a lick of concern, the bastard) nonetheless for long enough to do things like share a tub and sit around a bathroom bone-bare grooming each other- but now it came as naturally as sharing secrets or beds. They’d done this semi-regularly before Kevin had gotten so busy, though now…

“Think we may have to start scheduling this shit.”

“Yeah.” Argit switched back to the brush. “Not exactly looking to get the shit kicked out of me just to get a decent grooming session in again.”

“Hey, I have been clearing out your mane every other week!”

“It used to be weekly.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a busy man.” Shaking his head, Argit burrowed his nose through Kevin’s sopping hair and pressed it against the nape of his neck.

“You’re a disaster who’s going to put me in an early grave.” Kevin reached back to carefully scratch behind one of his ears, ever mindful of his quills. Being soaking wet may have made them softer, but it didn’t make them any less poisonous.

“If it makes you feel any better, apparently I’d join you after a couple of weeks.”

“It does not, but thanks anyway.” Pulling away, he returned to his brushing. “We need to retire, Kev, we’re too old for this shit.” They were, they really were, which _really_ said something about their lives given they were still high school-aged.

“As soon as we can get enough money together, Hedgehog,” Kevin promised for what felt like the millionth time, and every time he’d meant it, “the second we do. You, me-”

“-a nice place in the middle of nowhere, where nobody will bother us.” The Endgame. Where they’d have the time to do this every other day if they wanted to, and they’d both be as happy and healthy as Kevin’s powers and their mental health allowed for.

With a clean pass through the last lock, Argit set the brush aside.

“Alright,” he said, smile wide and toothy enough for even Kevin’s bad eyes to see clearly when he turned to him, “that’s one of us done as he’s gonna get. Now help me out before I freeze down to my brittle little bones.” With a laugh, Kevin flicked one of his ears and went for the blow-dryer.

“How _would_ you manage without me here?”

“Oh, I’d wither straight to dust-”


End file.
